I can hear you Doc, but I can’t get a grip on the words.
Doc, people mumble all the time, they don’t speak up.
Another patient put it this way: “Have you ever driven on the highway and listened to the same radio station for 40 or 50 miles and then the reception breaks up? Well, that’s how I hear people. When I hear people talk, I don’t have the clarity that I once had.”
Hearing loss is the third most common chronic problem in the USA. Millions of Americans have hearing loss and many of them turn the TV up and still “can’t get a grip on the words.”
Presbycusis, a decrease in our ability to hear as we get older, is the most common cause of sensorineural hearing loss in adults. It’s a ‘nerve loss’ that affects the inner ear (cochlear) and/ or the hearing nerve that goes to the brain. Nearly 25% of those aged 64-75 and 50% of those aged 75 or older have disabling hearing loss. However, there are other causes of nerve loss in adults besides the aging process.
Trauma to the ear — when exposed to excessive noise - causes loss of hearing. A skull fracture can result in a nerve loss as well as a perforated eardrum and disarticulation of the tiny bones in the middle ear.
Ototoxic drugs used in chemotherapy, diuretics (water pills), certain antibiotics and salicylates (e.g. aspirin) can result in permanent hearing loss.
Karen was hearing well, but when she got up the next morning to answer the telephone, she was shocked to discover she could not hear out of her left ear. Sudden Loss of Hearing is an emergency and the sooner one sees the ENT doctor, the better the chances of success. Unfortunately, even with the best of treatment, at times this hearing loss cannot be reversed.
Meniere’s Disease results in a nerve loss that ‘comes and goes,’ but eventually becomes permanent. It’s typically accompanied by dizziness, ear fullness, and tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
Acoustic Neuroma is a tumor that causes unilateral sensorineural hearing loss and/or tinnitus. Patients complain of being off balance rather than being dizzy and when a hearing test is performed, their ability to distinguish speech is markedly impaired.
Otosclerosis is a conductive hearing loss in which the stapes, a tiny bone in the middle ear, does not move and blocks the transmission of sound into the inner ear. This condition is often amenable to surgery.
Hearing loss is classified as sensorineural, conductive or mixed. Although sensorineural hearing loss is often permanent, conductive loss of hearing is usually reversible. Wax blocking the ear canal can be easily removed. A perforated eardrum can be patched with surgery. Infections can be treated with antibiotics and fluid can be aspirated from the middle ear.
As noted, a conductive loss is readily treatable. It is a misconception that all sensorineural hearing loss is permanent… Timely and appropriate medical treatment can reverse specific nerve loss. In addition, cochlear implants have proven to be of great benefit in the treatment of nerve deafness.